Tabla de contenidos para September 2025 en What on Earth! Magazine

CAVE OF WONDER In this stunning photograph an ice climber explores a blue ice cave inside a glacier in Iceland. These caves are created over hundreds of years by the compression of ice crystals inside the glacier. As the ice crystals enlarge they turn blue. COMING UP FOR AIR This striking photo of swimmer Isaac Cooper of Australia was snapped as he was breaking the surface of the water during a 50m men’s backstroke competition in Hungary. During competition, backstroke swimmers are only allowed to go completely underwater within 15 metres of the start of each turn. After that, they must surface. LINES OF LIONS In this brilliant photo taken in Zambia, a pride of lions appears to be queuing up for something! These lions are actually following a set…

Colour it in! ANIMALS 1 The praying mantis, pictured above, is the only insect that can do what? Jump backwards Swivel its head 180 degrees See in the dark Walk on water 2 What colour are a flamingo’s feathers when it is born? White Pink Grey Orange 3 How many bones does a giraffe have in its neck? 7 11 15 22 4 Zebras have black-and-white stripes. But what colour is their skin underneath? Pink Grey Brown Black STOLEN LETTERS Move one letter from the first word to the second word to make two new words. The order of all the other letters must stay the same – only the stolen letter moves. For example, in the pair PLANE and RAT, moving the letter E from PLANE to RAT PLANE…

DID YOU KNOW? There are over 1.5 million known species of animal living on Earth today. Humans are just one of these! We all make waste There’s no two ways about it. Sooner or later, every animal on this planet has to answer a call of nature. That is to say… it goes to the loo! All creatures great and small produce poo of one kind or another. Poo is fascinating stuff. Depending on the animal, it can take the form of hard pellets, sloppy dollops, sticky blobs, fine powder, or even a liquid explosion. And it can be almost any colour under the Sun. Some penguins eat shrimp-like animals that turn their poo pink! Hedgehogs are insect eaters, so their poo is full of shiny wing cases and often…

The biggest ever digital camera! A new telescope in Chile has released its first images of our universe. The telescope includes the largest digital camera ever made, which leads to some spectacular shots! The new telescope, called the Vera Rubin telescope, is so powerful that scientists say it could discover new planets in our solar system. It can also help scientists create a map of our galaxy, the Milky Way. In its first 10 hours, the telescope detected 2,104 new asteroids! RUBIN'S THREE-MIRROR DESIGN The telescope has a unique design that uses three mirrors to reflect light into its camera. DID YOU KNOW? One of the smallest tyrannosaurs known was Dilong paradoxus, which only reached 2 metres long! New dinosaur rewrites T. rex's family tree Scientists have discovered a new…

SUNLIGHT ZONE The Sunlight Zone stretches from the ocean’s surface down to about 200 metres and is warm, bright and bursting with life. Sunlight here fuels photosynthesis, allowing plants such as kelp, algae and seagrasses to grow, providing food and shelter for countless creatures. Coral reefs thrive in these conditions, along with seals, dolphins, turtles, jellyfish, schools of tuna and mackerel, and graceful manta rays. Because this is the only zone shallow enough for humans to explore freely, you might snorkel over a reef, paddle in the shallows, or, using scuba gear, venture deeper. Some divers reach 40 to 50 m, where the pressure is roughly the same as a 1 kg weight on your fingernail. DID YOU KNOW? Scientists estimate that more than 80 per cent of the world’s…

WHO WAS HEDY LAMARR? To most people, Hedy Lamarr was a glamorous film actress from the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood. But off-screen, she was also a trailblazing inventor who came up with ideas that paved the way for important technologies that we rely on today. WHEN AND WHERE DID HEDY LAMARR LIVE? Hedy Lamarr was born in 1914 in Vienna, Austria, as Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler. She started acting as a teenager and performed in films and plays all over Europe before moving to the United States in 1938, where she lived for the rest of her life. HOW DID SHE THINK DIFFERENTLY? From a young age, Lamarr was fascinated by technology. Her father would explain how inventions worked as they walked through Vienna together, and she once took apart…

HOW LONG IS THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA? The Great Wall is one of the largest structures ever built. In fact, it’s so long that if you laid it across the United States, it would stretch from the East Coast all the way to Kansas! Built over centuries from dirt, stone and bricks, its winding paths cover about 13,000 miles in total. Begun as separate walls in the 600s BCE, it was joined into a single defensive barrier in the 200s BCE, then rebuilt and extended many times. The Great Wall stopped being used for defence in the 1600s. Today it’s an important historical site that is visited by millions of people each year. DID YOU KNOW? The Ming dynasty used a mixture of lime, water and sticky rice to…

RIGHT ARM The Statue’s right arm and torch were some of the earliest elements completed. They stood for 6 years in New York’s Madison Square Park as public art meant to help raise money for the Statue. They also went on display at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition! CROWN The crown has 25 windows that can be looked out of by up to 10 visitors at a time. The crown itself has 7 rays, perhaps for the 7 continents. TORCH The Statue of Liberty’s torch has gone through several changes since it was first constructed. At first it was a sheet of solid copper that would reflect light from the Sun. Over time much of the torch was replaced with glass. In the 1980s the Statue was restored and the…

1 million The number of neural connections formed in a child’s brain every second during the first few years of life. 2 bilion The estimated number of humans aged between 0 and 14 alive on Earth today.** 5 The age at which young Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his first orchestral symphony. 11 The age at which American Frank Epperson accidentally invented the ice lolly.*** 12 The age of US schoolboy Abhimanyu Mishra when he became the youngest-ever chess grandmaster. 13 The age at which Jordan Romero, from the US, became the youngest person to climb Mount Everest. 44 The percentage of kids who said pizza was their favourite food in a survey.***** 45 The number of sweaters worn at once by US schoolgirl Sophia Hayden. *** 107 The…